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Cycling in China

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Cycling in China can be a fantastic experience. But since China is so big, where to start your journey? I have created a few pages with routes I have cycled over the years in China.

Bicycle riding in China is not just a holiday, it's a life time experience and something you will remember the rest of your life. As said, China's big. Even if you have a year to cycle in China, it's still difficult to see "everything".

I have been cycling in China for more then a year (spent more then 2 years in China total) though I haven't been to the East with the exception of Beijing. But I did a lot in the south, west and in central China.

This first page will introduce you into the various aspects of cycling in China.

Have a look at some areas in China where you can have great bike rides:

Yunnan	North Yunnan Zhongdian (Shangrila)
	Lijiang
	Dali
	Tiger Leaping Gorge
	Baoshan
	Xishuangbanna
	Tonghai-Jianshui
	Kunming to Guilin
	North Yunnan - the roads to Sichuan
Guangxi	Hong Kong
	Guilin to Nanning
	Yunnan
	other directions
	Baishe to Guilin
Sichuan	Chengdu
	Xian to Chengdu
	Lanzhou to Xining and Xiahe Labrang Monastery
	The bus from Xiahe to Langmusi
	Chengdu to Kunming
	West China, Danba and Barkam
Guizhou	Guizhou, Longsheng, Sanjiang and Zhaoxing
	Yunnan to Guizhou
Xi'an	Around Xi'an

Preparations

It depends really how much time you have. China is so big that cycling in China can be a sole journey for a year or even two.

So I have to make a separation between short term visitors and those who want to spent a long time.

But whatever you have in mind, don't think you can cover the whole of China, even if you have a full year for China alone. It's good therefore to choose an area, for example Yunnan, Sichuan or Tibet. Many provinces of China are at least the size of France or Texas if not bigger.

I have also set up a few photo pages only:

• China photos, the country
• China photos, the people

If you come for a short time, say, 3-4 weeks, organize your visa in your own country. But if you want to have a longer en during visa for visiting anything between 3 and 6 months, I recommend Hong Kong.

Hong Kong, and to a lesser extend Bangkok are excellent places to pick a Chinese visa. Hong Kong is definitely the easier place to get a 6 months visa in a day without any problems.

Getting a Chinese visa in other countries can be easy but also sometimes notoriously difficult (aka Islamabad Pakistan). Regulations for a visa differ in from country to country. In Pakistan is only 1 month visa possible, Netherlands 2 months without problems (3 months if you are lucky), while in Bangkok 3 months is no problem. Hong Kong however is the best place.

Permits

Cycling in China today requires no longer special attention for restricted areas. This is apart of Tibet but even Tibet is nowadays easier to enter.

In the old days, you needed for almost every area a permit. It was "for your own safety", explained to me by the PSB. Cycling in China then was much more difficult but these days you will not be bothered by the PSB, apart of course Tibet which is an entirely different thing.

The Roads

You will find the roads in China surprisingly good for cycling. In many provinces the government is very busy upgrading which makes cycling in China a lot easier. However, this can lead to incredible bad roads when they are upgrading. Many smaller road can be very good paved especially in areas where there is hardly any traffic.

Take Sichuan as an example. The result can be that you don't have to cross higher passes anymore because of a recent build tunnel.

Having said that, you will also find some of the smaller roads in what the Chinese call "backwards provinces" surprisingly bad. This picture shows how bad they can be. It was made in Tibet on the way to Namtzo lake, just north of Lhasa.

Or Yunnan, cycling in China starts for many people with cycling in Yunnan. You will meet people, locals and foreigners down the road. Here's a story about a meeting I had a with a local Chinese cyclist

The Traffic

China contains the most bicycles in the world. Only in bicycles per head of the population, Holland contains probably as many bikes as China.

The consequence of this is that the Chinese are used to bicycles on the road. That said, in China, as in many other countries, the biggest vehicle on the road rules. And, likewise other countries, cars, trucks etc don't like you to pass them. It does happen every now and then in descending where you can go faster then cars. Or it happens in a climb with traffic jams because of two vehicles not willing to give each other space. And it makes cycling in China quite easy and relatively safe, as long as you avoid the big on going road and big cities like Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. This makes cycling in China in many ways easier.

Outside the big cities you will hardly suffer from the traffic (unless you cycle on big open roads). You get space enough, even on the bigger roads. I think I have some authority when considering where I have been in China. Check the China map for some details where I have been.

The bad places are Hong Kong and Guangzhou. I haven't been to Shanghai but Beijing wasn't too bad though not fun too. Other big cities as Kunming, Xian, Chengdu or Nanning had no real problems.

Many on going roads have road markers. Sometimes it's written in Chinese but if you use a Chinese map, you can't get lost. The big boards can be in English too but the smaller roads have only boards in Chinese. Carrying a Chinese map makes communication easier.

And with a map in local language, you can have a lot of fun, make easier contact with local people and, most of all, find your way easier. Read more about my experiences with maps in local languages

Accommodation

In the past finding cheap accommodation was everywhere difficult and always expensive. These days however it can be dirt cheap. This solely depends where you travel. The big cities, I guess, will always be expensive. Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai. However, you will be bicycling in areas where fewer people travel.

As said, accommodation can be dirt cheap. In China everything is possible, from dirt cheap and very dirty to expensive and dirty, to dirt cheap and really good (see my Accommodation in china page for a good example what can happen when you go off the main tourist trail).

The way I usually handle finding accommodation in areas little visited by tourists is this: I look for the most expensive looking hotel in the town, visit it. They usually offer me crazy rates so I refuse and tell them I will visit another place. Usually they go down from, say, Y800 to Y100. The the real bargaining can start. The rooms you can have are usually very nice with attached bathrooms, hot water, in winter sometimes even a heater. However, this trick will NOT work in big cities. In smaller it usually does the trick. Try for yourself.

The sites to visit

A bicycle give you the freedom to go wherever you want. No need to bargain a price with a taxi, waiting for a bus or sit on a noisy motorbike. In China you can leave you bicycle usually in a bike parking stand where it usually is safe. When arriving at the site, you usually pay for an entrance ticket, right? Now, I have saved many of the tickets over the years. And I thought it would be nice to share some with you.

So I wrote a page about entrance tickets in China. Here it is.

China is a big country (this is an euphemism!). I usually tell people China is not a country, it's a continent! Even after two years traveling and cycling in China, there are many places I have never been. There is no way I can tell you everything about China and cycling in China. However, I found two excellent websites with a lot more information about China.

Anna from China Travel Golden Route.com gives you more detailed info about China. More then I can do on this page alone. Their excellent websites are a serious addition to your travel plans if you are going into China. Peter Snow BikeChina.com   is another great source for cyclists in China. Living in Chengdu Peter knows the ins and outs of cycling in China. A very valuable resource.

For Yangshuo and Guilin I recommend my own Yangshuo Travel Guide.com

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